Photo by Makenna Wozniak | The Crow’s Nest
By Jasmin Parrado
General elections for Student Government made headway across all campuses at the University of South Florida this spring, and uncertified results on March 10 narrowed down the race of almost 100 candidates, who led brief campaigns promising student resources and representation just weeks prior.
The Election Rules Commission will look to new leaders to fulfill those promises. Elections come at a time when SG faces recurring financial challenges like the A&S budget, which has been cut by 50% for the 2025-26 fiscal year, slashing budget allocations for upwards of 250 student organizations across all campuses.
“That’s about hundreds of thousands of dollars in cuts,” SG governor Elise Prophete said. “But something we’re really prioritizing, obviously, is students as Student Government, and also the livelihoods of people.”
Prophete, junior in political science and sustainability studies, decided not to run for re-election.
She said the decision was difficult, but important — and it models civic changes beyond academia.
“I think it’s really important to be able to step away from power that you have and trust that other people can do it and will do it and will do an amazing job at fulfilling the role that I’ve been in for two years,” Prophete told The Crow’s Nest.
Six years into its tri-campus consolidation, “representation and budgets are a continuous battle” for SG, Prophete said.
“I think just being able to have St. Pete representation or Sarasota representation from local execs in a federal executive cabinet, where it’s mostly campus students, is a little bit difficult,” Prophete told The Crow’s Nest.
Prophete believes that with the intersection of campus-specific needs and funding setbacks, the A&S budget is often a “scary conversation to have,” and it will be a vital topic for future student leaders to tackle, especially with a consolidated SG.
“But that’s the point of government,” Prophete said. “So, I think it’s a battle that will be fought with every administration each year.”
Prophete said she believes “having a more collaborative spirit” will be helpful in navigating those conversations and ensuring that “they’re actually conversations and not just one-sided decisions.”
She hopes to see the incoming president and vice president embody that spirit.
Candidates campaigned extensively for their SG roles earlier this month, and political student organizations either opted to endorse candidates or pull away from electoral support.
In a Feb. 28 Instagram post, USF College Democrats declared that it had decided not to endorse any candidates in the election.
Its statement was shown beneath a photo of a digital sign in the University Student Center that previously displayed its initial endorsement of Tyler Williams — the organization’s president — and Mahesh.
Meanwhile, USF Tampa’s College Republicans endorsed Caio Esmeraldi and Maria Martins, James Mayer and Julia Jacomini and Lucio Bagulho, who ran for senate, in an Instagram post on March 2.
Williams — whose campaign alongside Haran Mahesh came shortly after he stepped down as SG’s senate president — told The Crow’s Nest he wanted to address controversial administrative actions such as the Sarasota-Manatee bill proposal, which would facilitate the New College of Florida’s purchase of the 51-year-old campus.
In addition to mental health struggles, the political science junior said he chose to exit his senate president position to avoid facing “baby politics,” which he alleged is common in smaller SG circles, alongside current leaders’ lack of initiative to advocate.
During his campaign, Williams told The Crow’s Nest he’d also aim to represent USF St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee to his “fullest ability” and that he felt “muted” from doing that in his previous role, which he said is designated as a neutral arbiter in SG senate matters.
Prophete said the student body president role may face certain limitations on its own, since the president resides in the cabinet as opposed to her own position, in which she feels she “speaks up all the time.”
“I’m not sure how navigating that will be with whoever the next student body president is, but I think they should just know that their position is not in jeopardy if they’re advocating for students,” Prophete said. “That’s the entire point of their job.”
Prophete believes that if the president feels “empowered” in their role and has agency in it, then they should not have any issue speaking up about what they believe in and what students need.
Prophete recalled that during her term, she advocated for inter-campus transportation — and SG should pursue it going forward.
With high gas prices and the university tuition’s transportation fee, she believes the solution is essential if USF wants to reach its consolidation objective, which is otherwise stunted largely by the issue.
“I just feel like it’s still kind of ridiculous, and it’s a battle that is gonna take a while to solve,” Prophete told The Crow’s Nest.
Amid funding, transportation and representation, Prophete also hopes that future SG leadership can also prioritize the USC’s art gallery, primarily to restore representation lost years ago with the removal of its international flags.
“Being able to show student representation — student artwork directly — especially with our wonderful graphic arts program, and just to show the culture of the St. Pete campus is something I’d really love for SG to continue with after I’m not the governor anymore,” Prophete said.
